Entertainment

Who’s next? High anxiety in Hollywood amid sexual harassment allegations in the industry

The curtain has been pulled back, and, oh, is it messy.

November 9, 2017

Hollywood has always revelled in scandal. The rumour. The whisper. The unfortunate photograph. The apology and return to grace. But the recent sex abuse stories have turned into a parade of tawdry violations and twisted passions, the stuff of movies acted out in real lives against the unglamorous air of disgrace, endless transgressions that even Ray Donovan, Showtime’s half-shaven mercurial fixer, couldn’t clean up with all his hush money and muscle.

The rape and sexual abuse allegations surrounding Harvey Weinstein, Brett Ratner, James Toback and others have shattered the awards-season aplomb in a town that imagines itself bold and freewheeling but prefers the tempered and scripted. The entertainment industry has slipped into a multi-polar catharsis of emboldened women, nervous men, threatening lawyers, broken deals, spoiled careers and the uncertainty that comes when cracks run like lightning through facades.

May 25, 2011

“I think the industry is forever changed,” said Marcel Pariseau, a publicist whose clients include Scarlett Johansson and Olivia Munn, one of six women who accused Ratner of sexual misconduct in the Los Angeles Times last week. “Every morning we wake up and we don’t know what’s going to be next. You’re almost afraid to get on your gadget to see what the new story is.”

“No one is going to be going to a producer or director’s hotel suite anymore,” he added. “All meetings will be done with somebody else in the room for protection for both sides. It’s a defining moment. It’s vigilance.”

November 19, 2014

Instagram accounts are being scrubbed, Facebook pages edited, publicists consulted and memories jogged about what might have happened where and with whom on that blurry night years ago. The cocktail circuit is jittery; the Oscar buzz feels a bit listless. Talent agencies are dropping clients and scouring their own houses. Studios are pruning relationships, firing executives hours after an allegation is made public. (Source: Toronto Star)

High anxiety in Hollywood amid sexual harassment allegations in the industry

February 25, 2017

The curtain has been pulled back, and, oh, is it messy.

Hollywood has always revelled in scandal. The rumour. The whisper. The unfortunate photograph. The apology and return to grace. But the recent sex abuse stories have turned into a parade of tawdry violations and twisted passions, the stuff of movies acted out in real lives against the unglamorous air of disgrace, endless transgressions that even Ray Donovan, Showtime’s half-shaven mercurial fixer, couldn’t clean up with all his hush money and muscle.

March 1, 2016

The rape and sexual abuse allegations surrounding Harvey Weinstein, Brett Ratner, James Toback and others have shattered the awards-season aplomb in a town that imagines itself bold and freewheeling but prefers the tempered and scripted. The entertainment industry has slipped into a multi-polar catharsis of emboldened women, nervous men, threatening lawyers, broken deals, spoiled careers and the uncertainty that comes when cracks run like lightning through facades.

March 5, 2014

“I think the industry is forever changed,” said Marcel Pariseau, a publicist whose clients include Scarlett Johansson and Olivia Munn, one of six women who accused Ratner of sexual misconduct in the Los Angeles Times last week. “Every morning we wake up and we don’t know what’s going to be next. You’re almost afraid to get on your gadget to see what the new story is.”

“No one is going to be going to a producer or director’s hotel suite anymore,” he added. “All meetings will be done with somebody else in the room for protection for both sides. It’s a defining moment. It’s vigilance.” (Source: Toronto Star)

Today’s illustration featured on the front of the Saturday Hamilton Spectator:

Is it a thick patty? Dill pickles? Something crunchy? A secret sauce?

Hamilton’s most delicious fundraiser is proof that a good burger takes many forms.

Novemburger, the annual fundraiser for the United Way, kicks off this week. Seventy-five restaurants around Hamilton and Burlington will offer unique and delicious entries throughout the month, with $1 per burger going to the United Way of Hamilton and Burlington.

Diners can vote for their favourites at novemburger.ca. Two winners will be announced, for most Novemburgers sold, and Novemburger of the Year.

In celebration of Novemburger, we asked three participating restaurants to share their secret to a good burger. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)

Disney hack: Ransom demanded for stolen film

Disney CEO Bob Iger told ABC employees about the demand at a town hall meeting on Monday, The Hollywood Reporter said.

He did not name the film, but Deadline reports that it is Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Mr Iger said Disney is refusing to pay, and that the studio is working with federal investigators.

He added that the hackers had demanded the ransom in bitcoin and that they would release the film online in a series of 20-minute chunks unless it was paid.

It is not the first film studio to be threatened with online leaks.

Last month, a group of hackers uploaded the fifth season of Orange is the New Black after Netflix refused to pay a ransom.

Dead Men Tell No Tales is the fifth instalment of the Pirates franchise and will see Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow return to the ocean alongside Geoffrey Rush and Orlando Bloom.

It is due to be released in cinemas in the US on 26 May.

Mark James, security specialist at IT security company ESET, said: “Anything that has a value will always be a potential victim of theft, either digital or physical. If someone has it and someone wants it then in theory there’s a market for it.” (Source: BBC)

Through my website I offer for sale some of my cartoons on a variety of products from t-shirts to coffee cups. It’s mainly a means to get my work out beyond the newspapers and put a few coins in my pocket. To do this I use the company Redbubble.com to manufacture and send out the swag. All I have to do is upload images, adjust how they’ll appear, and add relevant descriptions and keywords. Every month, I get a tiny royalty knowing which images sold, on what products, and on which continent.

It’s all quite fun until work is removed due to a charge of violating Redbubble’s IP/Publicity Rights Policy. Which happened to me when the Content Team sent the following email informing me of a complaint received by WN Music Company, LLC, regarding my caricature of Willie Nelson:

It’s a form letter so I’m not sure if the violation is using the lyric “Always on my mind”, or merely capitalizing on the Willie Nelson brand. Whatever the case I sense a mixture of emotions ranging from feeling like a criminal for looting Willie Nelson’s stash and besmirching his reputation, to being oppressed by big Music for freely expressing my admiration for a legend in a whimsical little doodle.

After a bit of reflection the position I find myself feeling is somewhere in the middle. As a cartoonist, I’ve had my own experience of others taking my work and repurposing it for their own benefit. I’m assuming the lawyers don’t like my use of the lyric, and the image was just the kicker in its eradication from the Redbubble site. The same sort of thing happened to another swag creator when lawyers for Taylor Swift sent a cease and desist letter for using her song lyrics on a coffee cup

The legal department at Redbubble.com must deal with a horrendous amount of copyright infringement complaints and a casual look through will find blatant rip offs of other artists and brands. It’s impossible for Redbubble to properly regulate until complaints are filed, and when they are it’s way easier for them to remove the offending item and not get involved in the legal wrangling that might ensue between the two parties.

While the free speech/expresionist instinct kicked in and I thought about removing the lyric and reposting the caricature as “Nillie Welson”, it’s not a sword I’m willing to fall on. It’s one thing to use the caricature of public personality in an editorial cartoon printed in a newspaper, and quite another to make money on that personality’s image.

Victory for the Willie Nelson brand, I suppose, and I’ll still enjoy his music.